On safari With Amanda 7 January 2016

7 January 2016

Early start today as temperatures expected to rise to the mid 40's! 

My guests were very excited about the drive after last night's sunset, they really loved the scenery especially the various koppies we saw. 

We  drove to shithave dam and found a lone sable bull drinking alongside zebras and buffalos. A juvenile fish eagle flew down to the water and then flew back to its perch sitting on top of the tree as his vantage point. 

A km or so from the dam we found lying under a sickle bush a single cheetah!

Amazing considering there are roughly just over 400 in the park. We sat for a good hour watching her enjoying alone time with her.

Back to camp for a dip in the pool and then a short drive to mestle dam and shabeni koppies. At the dam we watched elephants rolling in the water keeping cool. They then headed to the top road so we followed and there we were greeted by 15 other elephants sheltering under a marula tree. It was a roadblock, the sort you really don't mind! 

The best sighting of the day had to be a herd of sable antelope coming to drink at a small waterhole. .. beautiful creatures the males handsomely striking. 

Rain is for cast for tonight so we're all hoping for a cooler day and much needed rain!

On Safari With Karen 7 January 2016

7 January 2016

When your phone switches off during the day and tells you it is too hot to function, you can imagine the heat we felt today!

Nevertheless we set off on our early morning drive hoping to beat yesterday's good sightings. And even though it was quiet at times we did see some great animals. 

Our first highlight was seeing two sable bulls. They were grazing not far from the road. We had seen sable before now, but they were quite far away and hiding in the bush but these guys were almost out in the open. At one point they even locked horns, but it was a very weak-hearted fight.

It was a bad day for fish at Shitlhave Dam today. As we were watching the hippo looking grumpy (according to the guests) a fish eagle flew over the dam, stretched its legs out and caught a fish. Immediately it pulled up and away from the water to eat it on the shore. Another fish eagle attempted to steal it, but the winner, or in this case catcher, took all. 

A few minutes later we were distracted by a crocodile making waves and it turns out he caught himself a fish too! Maneuvering it around in its mouth to get it right we could clearly see his catch. Then it was a few tosses backwards and the fish was swallowed. We didn't stay long enough but we thought the crocodile was aiming for more. 

Other interesting sightings: a lone giraffe, hyenas, zebras, steenbok, waterbuck, hippo, impalas, an elephant herd quite far away, white rhinos, common grey duiker, many buffalo bulls, vervet monkeys with babies (very cute!), an elephant bull up close and kudus.

On Safari With Amanda 6 January 2016

6 January 2016

Incredibly hot today in the park. My guests were very reluctantly leaving after a great trip. We said our goodbyes except for 2 guests who were flying from skukuza.

After a lovely bush walk and breakfast we headed out. Elephants greeted us, along with kudu and zebras. Again we saw a few European rollers perched close to the road.

Just past shithave dam on the right hand side stands a marula tree roughly 200m from the road and there resting hanging in the tree was a leopard! We sat and watched as he tried to get in a comfortable position eventually he perched very comfortably and slept. Always amazing to see these elusive animals.

Beautiful giraffe walked along the road and we followed until they turned to eat from the knob thorn trees. 

We stopped to watch male impalas challenging each other very entertaining to see.

So another safari is over and my guests leave very happy and ready for their next adventure.

On Safari With Karen 6 January 2016

6 January 2016

Another day, another chance of seeing animals. Despite the heat that was there early on, we had a great day! Our highlight was our leopard sighting. Stumbled upon it by accident, we were happy to see a glimpse of a leopard. The guests had not expected to see one so they were pretty excited. Then suddenly she walked out of the bush for three second and disappeared again. Where some of us had trouble locating her before, now for sure all of us had seen her. 

But it got better. After being mostly hidden in the bush, she suddenly decided to lie down in the riverbed below the bush. This gave us a beautiful view. She was still young and playful and every sound of a bird got her attention. As we were the only vehicle at the sighting we could thoroughly enjoy it as long as we wanted. 

But it got better as she was not alone. After a while her mum came down too. They greeted each other like cats do by rubbing their heads together, which was cute. And then mum started washing her cub. We had watched her groom herself while she was still half hidden in the bush, and apparently now it was the cub's turn. She let it happen but she looked at us as if she was really embarrassed by her mum's behavior. So the fun didn't last long as the cub decided to go on an adventure a little further away. She got up and walked away from mum and out of side for us. Mum stayed in the riverbed a little while longer but then got up and went back into the bush where we first spotted her. It was our cue to leave, but what a great sighting!

Our second highlight of today was sitting at Transport Dam and watching the animal traffic. It appeared we had arrived at rush hour as it was crazy busy around the dam with lots of impalas all around the dam having a drink. There were pretty kudu bulls, lots of waterbucks and some males were fighting. A herd of blue wildebeests came down to drink and rub their faces in the mud and then roll in it while their babies were chasing each other around and made weird jumps. Zebras came and went. An elephant bull came by and had a mouthful of water. It looked like he wanted to go swimming, but while walking through the dam he found out it was too shallow and he just walked across (chasing some impalas on the go). And a lone buffalo who couldn't care less about all the others and walked down to the mud to have a good soak. The hippos in the dam decided to stay away from the busy corner and kept snoozing on the other end. 

Other interesting sightings: steenboks, elephants, a chameleon pretending to be a leaf, waterbucks, blue wildebeests, zebras, kudus, giraffes, white rhinos up close, hyenas, baboons with bulging cheeks as they snacked on marula fruit and let's not forget the impalas.

On safari With Curtis 6 January 2016

6 January 2016

The final day of this tour and we set off on one final drive.

The highlight was our sighting of baboons,  not that they were doing anything out of the ordinary. Just their daily routine of foraging for food.

But what made this special was the reaction of one of the guests. She had been told she would see loads of them as she travelled but no luck, until today!!! I think the screams and whoops of delight confirmed her enjoyment.

We had final sightings of zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, warthogs, kudu, waterbuck, crocodile, hippo, Vervet monkey, elephant, cape buffalo, Impala, klipspringer and hyena.

Then time to say farewell to Barbara and David, Kathy, Gerd and Erica.

Been great having all you guys on tour!!!